Finding and delivering clean drinking water is a challenge faced by many cities. Conventional methods to pump water from one place to another require electricity to run pumps, and power lines to get electricity to the pumping station. There are many losses between the initial generation of the electricity, the transfer of the electricity over power lines, and the mechanical inefficiency of the equipment to finally pump the water. These conventional methods have not developed an efficient pump that would convert a high-pressure primary fluid at low flow, into a low-pressure secondary fluid at high flow. In other words, there are currently no pumping systems which act as flow intensifiers. Since mountain reservoirs form naturally due to precipitation and melting cycles, there exists an untapped source of energy to power such a pump.
A number of patents relate to direct-acting reciprocating pumps, which transfer energy from one fluid to another using a piston or ram. Examples include U.S. Pat. No. 6,604,914 (Pares Criville); U.S. Pat. No. 5,462,414 (Permar); and U.S. Pat. No. 157,617 (Loretz). However, these pumps are designed to intensify the pressure of the output liquid, not to intensify the volumetric flow. Also, these pumps do not include an efficient internal stroke reversing system, but instead rely on an external mechanism triggered by high-pressure fluid. This high-pressure fluid is later dumped and not used for pumping, which wastes fluid and lowers efficiency. Lastly, these pumps submit their piston rods to compression, which limits their stroke lengths.
Thus, it can be seen that there is a long felt need for an efficient water pump which can operate without the use the use of electricity. Furthermore, there is also a need to expand the use of renewable energy sources.